How to create a digital marketing plan for your small business
If you’re running a small business, knowing where to start with digital marketing can feel overwhelming. You need to create a website, choose social media platforms, send email marketing campaigns, take care of SEO and Google Ads and countless other marketing activities competing for your attention.
Many business owners know they need digital marketing but have no idea where to start.
The good news is that you don’t need a huge budget or a large marketing team to create and execute an effective digital marketing plan. Focusing on a few key areas and creating a simple strategy will help you attract more customers and grow your business.
In this blog, we’ll help you create a digital marketing plan for your small business.
Why your small business needs a digital marketing plan
Without a plan, it’s easy to spend time and money on marketing activities that don’t deliver results.
A well-thought-out digital marketing plan will help you:
Stay focused on your business goals
Prioritise the right digital marketing activities
Use your budget effectively
Measure what’s working
Generate more leads and sales
It’s important to think of your marketing plan as a roadmap that will guide your efforts throughout the year and understand which activities work and which don’t.
Here’s how to create a marketing plan for your small business.
Step 1: Define your marketing goals
Before you start posting on social media or writing blog content, you need to understand what you want to achieve.
Common marketing goals include:
Increasing website traffic
Generating more enquiries
Growing online sales
Building brand awareness
Growing an email subscriber list
Improving customer retention
When you’re creating goals for your business, try to make them measurable.
For example…
Avoid goals such as ‘get more customers’.
And focus on ‘Generate 20 new enquiries per month through the website’.
Having clear goals in place will help you to understand which digital marketing activities are most likely to help you reach them so you’re not focusing your efforts in the wrong places.
Step 2: Understand your target audience
If you try and market to anyone and everyone, it’s unlikely your marketing activities will be successful.
Being as clear as possible about who your ideal customer is will make it much easier to create effective digital marketing campaigns.
Think about who your best customers are, they problems they have and how your product or service can solve them, where they spend time online and the questions, they have before purchasing from you.
For example
Understanding your audience helps you create content that speaks to their needs and campaigns in the right places.
Step 3: Choose the right marketing channels
When you’re getting started with digital marketing, it can be tempting to try and put something on every channel. To get the most from your strategy, it’s important to focus on the channels that are most likely to reach your target audience and help you to meet your business goals.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO ensures your business appears in the search results when potential customers are looking for your products or services. It’s a long-term strategy which makes it one of the most cost-effective marketing channels for small businesses.
Start with SEO by optimising your product or service pages and creating helpful blog content to improve your visibility online.
Google Ads
Google Ads allows you to pay to ensure your business appears at the top of the search results and generate sales or enquiries quickly.
Social media marketing
Social media isa great way to build awareness, trust and engagement with your target audience. The platform you choose will depend on your business.
Use Facebook if you’re a local business
Use Instagram if you’ve got a visual brand
Use LinkedIn if you’re targeting other businesses
Use TikTok if you’re targeting younger audiences
Email marketing
Email is a cost-effective marketing tool. Use it to nurture leads, promote offers and share updates with your database of existing and potential customers.
Content marketing
Creating useful content is a highly effective way to promote your business as an expert and improve your visibility in the search engines. Create blogs, guides, FAQ documents, videos and case studies to showcase your expertise, products and services.
Step 4: Set a realistic marketing budget
Remember that you don’t need thousands of pounds every month to run effective digital marketing campaigns. Start by deciding how much you can comfortably spend every month and think carefully about how you’re going to split your budget.
Consider splitting your budget across the following activities:
Website and SEO
Paid advertising
Content creation
If you’re struggling to find the time to manage marketing yourself, outsourcing it to experts can often be the most cost-effective way to invest in marketing. The key is consistency rather than spending huge amounts of money.
Step 5: Create monthly marketing tasks
As a small business owner, looking after marketing on your own can seem like an impossible task. Splitting tasks into a simple monthly schedule can help you stay on track.
Split your tasks down by channel and break it down into manageable tasks that you can schedule in throughout the month.
For example:
Monthly SEO tasks
Publish one blog article
Optimise one service page
Review keyword rankings
Check Google Search Console
Monthly social media tasks
Create posts for the month
Schedule posts
Engage with followers
Review performance
Monthly email marketing tasks
Send one newsletter
Promote recent content
Share offers or updates
Monthly website tasks
Review website performance
Update content
Check forms and enquiries are working correctly
Monthly reporting tasks
Track:
Website traffic
Enquiries
Sales
Conversion rates
Social media engagement
This allows you to identify what’s working and where you could make improvements.
Keep it simple!
One of the biggest misconceptions about digital marketing is that it’s complicated. In reality, the most successful small businesses focus on a few key activities and do them consistently.
A simple plan should:
Have clear goals
Focus on the right audience
Use the right marketing channels
Work within your budget
Include achievable monthly tasks
Consistency is key when it comes to digital marketing success.
Need help with digital marketing for your business?
If you’re not sure where to start or don’t have time to manage your marketing, Rent a Marketer can help.
We work with small businesses to help you complete small tasks you just don’t have the time or expertise for. We can support you with SEO, content marketing, email marketing or social media to help you increase visibility and sales.
Contact us today or browse our services to find out more about how we can help.
